Rotating components such as axles, shafts and the like may be subject to fatigue cracking particularly when the rotating component is subject to unbalanced loading conditions. Left undiagnosed, such cracking may ultimately lead to a catastrophic failure of the rotating component. When the rotating component is a conveyor shaft or similar component employed in a manufacturing operation, failure of the rotating component may shut down the manufacturing operation thereby resulting in significant economic losses.
To prevent failure, the rotating component may be regularly and frequently inspected for fatigue cracks or other damage which may lead to cracking as a matter of routine preventative maintenance. Current methods for inspecting a rotating component for cracks may involve the use of eddy-current inspection devices, meandering-wandering magnetometer inspection devices, x-ray diffraction, mag-particle testing, dye-penetrant inspection, and the like. While such techniques and devices are well suited for identifying the smallest of cracks, none of the techniques and/or devices are particularly well suited for the in situ inspection of the rotating component while the component is actually rotating. More specifically, the above referenced techniques generally require that the rotating component be removed from the apparatus in which it is installed in order for the inspection to be performed which, in turn, may cause costly process down time. In certain situations these preventative maintenance measures may be nearly as costly as the failure of the rotating component.
Accordingly, a need exists for alternative methods and systems for inspecting rotating shafts for cracks.